Music: I Serenissimi

The Metropolitan Opera used to be known as a rich, acquisitive collector of the biggest stars available. There are not so many supersingers around now, and the Met has been hiring them less frequently. Last week in its first production of Vincenzo Bellini's I Puritani in almost 60 years, the company reverted to its grand old ways, presenting three top international singers—Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Sherrill Milnes. It made a particularly satisfying, old-fashioned night at the opera.

I Puritani contains scarcely any drama at all. What plot it has concerns two noble lovers who are temporarily made unhappy by conflicting allegiances...